Page 100 of Doc Defence

“He said, ‘when Hel phones, tell her, I’m not taking it back’.” Hel managed to laugh at his message despite the tears, as her first instinct had been to give it back. “And he texted me this, when I thanked him.” She showed Gloria her phone screen, his message only had three words, ‘You’re very welcome.’

“Oh, darling.” Gloria put her arm around Hel’s shoulder, giving her a hug. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”

“Me too.”

CHAPTER 34

FROST

Froststoodbythebench watching with bated breath as the Vultures played the last minute of their final game before the playoffs, which they, unfortunately, hadn’t qualified for this year.

He was aware of Greg on his left, who had been watching him for the last eighteen months. He usually didn’t notice him, but tonight was their last night of filming before they edited together the documentary, and for some reason, that made him hyper-aware of the camera again.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered under his breath, waiting for the final seconds to count down. They just needed to stop the other team from scoring, and the win was theirs.

He loved coaching, and he hated it at the same time. It was so much harder not to be playing and not to have any actual control over the game’s outcome.

When the final horn sounded, he sighed with relief and began congratulating the players around him for their win.

When he turned to face the crowd, bright red, curly hair caught his eye, and he froze. She was here. In Canada. After seven months of no contact with him, she had come!

He stood on his tiptoes and tried to get a better look over the heads of the players, who, despite him being six foot-three, towered over him with their skates on.

At least he didn’t need his crutch any more, but his leg still ached if he stood on it for too long. He moved around the players blocking his view and could finally see the red-headed woman properly. It wasn’t Hel. It was never Hel, however much he wanted it to be.

He picked up his phone a thousand times to text her or call her since sending her those three words after she thanked him for paying for her dad’s surgery. Then he put it down again. What could he say? Sorry for leaving. I still think about you all the time. I miss you. Whatever he said would prolong the agony for both of them, and he couldn’t do that to her.

Frost’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to check his messages. It was his agent, well not his old agent. It was one of the juniors in the company who now looked after him.

‘Great news. The Vultures want to offer you a job for next year. They’re sending me the contract to review.’

Frost huffed. That was the news he had been waiting for. It confirmed what he knew: he had done a good job in the role of coach. He should be delighted. It was everything he had hoped for when he started the job.

“Are you happy to do the final interview in the locker room after the game?” Greg had turned off his camera for once.

Frost wrenched himself out of his contemplation to answer the cameraman. “Yeah. That sounds good. It won’t take too long for the boys to empty out.”

Greg nodded. “It’ll be a good ending to the documentary. As we started in the locker room too.”

Frost remembered the interview like it was yesterday. He had been fresh off the ice and a little nervous in front of the camera despite all the media training he underwent as an NHL player.

He hadn’t been sure initially about doing the documentary. However, his agent, Trent, had been persuasive and nagged at him, making him sit and watch the previous documentaries from Icehouse Films. And he had to admit, they were all great. They showed the sport in a fantastic light. They managed to showcase the flaws of the players, which made them interesting and human while still also highlighting all the good qualities about them.

Frost wasn’t delusional. He had a lot of flaws, and it took his mom sitting him down and explaining how proud they were of him and how they would love to have such a wonderful record of his career to ‘show him off’—those were the exact words his very proud mom used—to all her friends for him to say yes.

It would be interesting to watch and see the man he was at the start. The focused hockey player whose whole life was the game, compared to the man he was now, who realised it was time to stop and begin the rest of his life.

Standing in the locker room that had been his home for so long, he watched with nostalgia and a touch of sadness as the players chatted about the game.

Even though he had been on the ice as a player with so many of the team members, he was now a coach and slightly separated from them, and he felt sad to have lost the camaraderie he once took for granted.

As each player grabbed their bags and walked out, the locker room grew quieter and quieter until only Frost and Greg were left.

They decided he should sit in front of his old locker space, where he sat when they began filming. Glancing up, it was still a shock to see Smith, where the name Forster once hung.

Sitting there, things seemed more final than the day he stepped off the NHL ice for the last time as a player. This was really it. His career as an ice hockey player was over, and all he had left was the legacy he had made playing and this documentary.

Frost stared into the camera for a long time before he spoke.

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